Technology consumption and its consequences on family feeling

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2024-07-01

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en

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Technology has become a daily activity in children’s lives, which brings various consequences and parental concerns with it. Existing literature reveals how children and parents benefit and experience disadvantages from technology. Besides, literature shows how the increase in technology consumption can lead to an individualistic society with less face-to-face interactions. In order to prevent negative consequences of technology, parents try to manage their children’s technology consumption. Yet it remains unclear in marketing research what the actual consequences are from the consumption of technology by children and parents for parent-child relationships. Accordingly, this research uses Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) to gain insight into how technology consumption by children and families affects parent-child relationships, through a family identity lens. This research contributes to CCT research by extending the family identity lens with the conceptualisation of ”family feeling”: the feeling that you are living as a collective rather than an individual when at home with other family members and the ability to completely be yourself among other family members. With data from family interviews and netnography, the author identifies a process of technology consumption within families. This process demonstrates how the family identity lens shapes children’s and family’s technology consumption and what consequences this has on parent-child relationships in terms of a family feeling. This process also reveals how negotiations between parents and children arise and what impact this has on parent-child relationships. Finally, this research offers insights into how firms can initialise advertisements and campaigns to reach both children and parents and emphasise the feeling that family members live as a collective and be themselves through the consumption of technology.

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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen

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